Mrs. Lohmer had her baby

On November 12, 2012 Mrs. Lohmer had her baby.  Mr. Magnuson is substituting in our classroom while Mrs. Lohmer stays home to take care of the baby.  Mrs. Lohmer will be back right after our December vacation week, on January 2.

Adjustment Class Rocks

Today we are beginning our chapter on Rocks and Minerals, as part of our unit on Earth Science.  Pictures will follow.

School House Rock

This morning we went to the cafeteria with the other middle school classrooms to see the preview of School House Rock Live!.  School House Rock live will be live at our school this month.  Visit their blog at http://pyneartsshrljr.blogspot.com for more information.

A Visit to the Lowell Cemetery

On Friday, our class and the other fifth grade classes took a tour of the Lowell Cemetery.  We learned all about the monuments in the gardens over at the cemetery.  Mr. Richard Howe, the Register of Deeds for the City of Lowell, took time out of his busy schedule to teach all about the personal stories behind the monuments in the gardens and about the materials used to create the monuments.  We all appreciate the time that Mr. Howe took to get the tour ready for us and his willingness to work with us as we took our first walking field trip of the year.  All of the fifth graders that attended were very respectful and we appreciate that they could join us.  If you would like more information about what we saw, you can visit the Lowell Cemetery website at http://www.lowellcemetery.com/

Surviving Hurricane Sandy and getting back to work

Hello everyone,
Well, there was no school Monday and Tuesday due to Hurricane Sandy.  Today we began working on our division unit in Investigations Math.  This week students will be taking the math benchmarks tests.  In science, we are finishing up our unit on the solar system.  Next week we will begin learning about rocks and minerals.  In social studies, we are still working on Latin America, with a current focus on Mexico.

What is happening in our class this week?

This week in social studies we will continue learning about Latin America.  Last week we talked about the Mayans and the Aztecs, and we worked on creating a scale model of a Mayan temple.  In science, we are continuing our unit on the solar system.  The chapter two test is coming up, so make sure you know the vocabulary for chapter 2 and all about the inner and outer planets.  In math, we are continuing to work on the unit about multiplication.  Now we are working on multiplying double digit by double digit numbers.  Soon we will be moving on to division.
On Friday, our class will be going with the other fifth grade classes to the Lowell Cemetery for a tour.  In writer's workshop, we have been writing personal narratives.  During our tour, we will hear the personal stories behind the monuments in the many gardens at the Lowell Cemetery.

The Book Fair

Our school is having a book fair next week.  Students will be bringing home a flyer with just some of the books available.  You can also purchase books at scholastic.com/fair.  All orders ship to our school for free and our school receives a portion of the profits to buy books for our school.  Please take a look at our classroom wish list.